Soil erosion control and water retention is a major ecological function of plantations and may be affffected by bothplantation type and age. In this study, we investigated both surface runoffff and sediment load under difffferentplantations in southern China for six years (2008–2013) in order to illustrate the inflfluence of plantation type andage on water retention and soil erosion. Our results showed that mature plantations functioned better thanyoung plantations in terms of soil erosion control and runoffff reduction, which reduced runoffff and soil erosion by64.5 ± 6.2% and 72.2 ± 7.9% more than young plantations, respectively. Our study indicated that plantationsplay a benefificial role in controlling soil erosion and reducing water loss, and this effffect is more pronounced withplantation age. Both runoffff coeffiffifficient and sediment load were least under Eucalyptus spp. either in young ormature plantations, suggesting that Eucalyptus spp. is better adapted for water retention and soil conservationcompared to other plant species. Correlation analysis showed that herb species and herb Margalef index were thetop two factors affffecting the surface runoffff and sediment load in young plantations but litter storage and treeShannon index were the top two affffecting factors in mature plantations. This shift was consistent with thedecreasing trend of herbs and increasing trend of litter storage with the time of vegetation restoration.